A Family Affair

For Nero Wolfe – the huge, orchid-growing gourmet whose admirable genius at untwisting the tangled knots of crime has no peer – this was one case that came too close to home. The murderer had the sheer nerve to blow up his victim in Wolfe’s Manhattan townhouse. Wolfe was going to solve this one on his own – without a fee – and keep it all in the family.

Copyright 1983 by Pola W. Stout,
executrix of the estate of Rex Stout
This edition is published by Avenel Books

Contents:

THE SILENT SPEAKER
MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD
IF DEATH EVER SLEPT
3 AT WOLFE’S DOOR
Poison a la carte
Method Three for Murder
The Rodeo Murder
GAMBIT
PLEASE PASS THE GUILT
A FAMILY AFFAIR

Dust Jacket Text:

Nero Wolfe is an overweight misanthrope and an avid orchid grower
who almost never leaves his comfortable Manhattan brownstone-
hardly the description of a crackerjack detective. Yet Nero Wolfe is one
of the best. Aided by Archie Goodwin, who does his legwork (and a fair
amount of the brain work), Nero Wolfe cracks every case, usually
while sitting comfortably in his study.

When is an after-dinner speaker never boring? When he is mur-
dered before he gets a chance to speak. In The Silent Speaker, Cheney
Boone from the Bureau of Price Regulation is murdered before
addressing the National Industrial Association. Nero Wolfe and
Archie Goodwin unravel the tangled hatreds among those who enforce
government regulations, free enterprise advocates, and greedy civil
servants to ferret out the killer.

In Might As Well Be Dead, a simple missing-person case leads Wolfe
and Goodwin to an accused killer with a mysterious past-a man on
trial who doesn’t want to be acquitted. Convincing the innocent not to
plead guilty becomes as difficult a task as finding the real murderer in
this complicated case.

Otis Farrell comes to Wolfe and Goodwin in If Death Ever Slept with
an urgent request to get his daughter-in-law out of his posh duplex
apartment. But before too long, family squabbles turn to murder and
the case that Wolfe took on a whim becomes deadly serious.

Death comes to Nero Wolfe in three unique ways in 3 at Wolfe’s Door.
Poisoned caviar in the blinis spoils Wolfe’s dinner in “Poison a la
Carte”; death comes by taxi to his brownstone in “Method Three for
Murder”; and a rodeo roping contest held on a balcony one hundred
feet above 63rd Street in New York is the scene of a murder in “The
Rodeo Murder.” But no matter how different or disturbing, Wolfe
solves each case with his usual brilliant deductions.
Ordinarily chess isn’t considered a dangerous game, but for Paul
Jerin a night of play meant murder in Gambit. His hot chocolate was
poisoned at the Gambit Chess Club, and Sally Blount, daughter ofthe
accused murderer, hires Wolfe to clear her father.

ln A Family Affair, a friend of Wolfe’s is killed in Wolfe’s own
brownstone, and he takes the case as a personal vendetta, going
so far as to leave the house to investigate and to jail to avoid
giving the police informgtion. The disturbing case leads Wolfe
and Goodwin to facts they would rather not know and
conclusions they would rather not make.
The seven Nero Wolfe mysteries collected here highlight the
rare genius and detective ability of Nero Wolfe and his able
assistant, Archie Goodwin.

This was one case that came too close to home. The murderer
had the sheer nerve to blow up his victim in Wolfe’s Manhattan townhouse. Wolfe was
going to solve this one on his own – without a fee – and keep it all in the family.